Mozart - Gran Partita - RAMSE, Pinnock

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A cracking disc

I really like this disc.  I'm naturally inclined toward it anyway because I love Trevor Pinnock's work almost without exception, and his excellent cycle of Mozart Symphonies is a staple of my collection, but it stands on its own merits.

Here Pinnock directs the finest crop of musicians from the Royal Academy Of Music on the colossal Gran Partita for winds.  It's a terrific work, full of playfulness and, especially in the Adagio made famous in Peter Schaffer's Amadeus, it also has real depth and beauty.  It's all there in this recording; to my ears Pinnock brings lovely performances from his ensemble and lends the whole disc his immense depth of understanding and long, long love of this music.  The much smaller Notturno by Haydn which concludes the disc was unfamiliar to me, but it turns out to be a little Haydn jewel – the sort of perfect, delightful piece he so often gave us.

It's a lovely programme, excellently performed and beautifully recorded by Linn (of course.)  I love this for its warmth, energy and insight and I can recommend it very warmly.

Carlos V; Mille regretz - Savall

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another cracker from Savall

This is yet another cracking disc from Jordi Savall.  It is a collection of vocal and instrumental pieces from the first half of the 16^th Century, based loosely around the chanson Mille Regretz.  There are some familiar composers here, like Josquin, Morales, Willert and others and also some more obscure pieces including a number of anonymous ones.  It's a terrific programme, put together with Savall's unfailing scholarship and musical judgement.

The performances are, as you'd expect, terrific.  The overall sound is lovely, the individual singers and players are excellent and the arrangements are impeccable; the judgement of the use of percussion is excellent, for example.  It's a fabulous disc.

I've loved Savall's work for many years now, and this is among his best, I think.  The recorded sound, presentation and notes are all up to Alia Vox's usual excellent standard and it's a really good disc all round.  I can recommend this very warmly indeed.

Bach - Cello Suites - Maisky

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Beautiful sound and some unusual interpretations

There is much to love in Mischa Maisky's reading of the Cello Suites, but I do have my reservations, too. 

The Cello Suites contain some of Bach's very finest music, in my view, and I think they distil the very essence of Bach's genius into a magnificent series of sublime movements.   Maisky plainly "gets" this – he invests the works with real passion and gives us a very powerful, emotional reading of the Suites.  Sometimes this works very well – the whole of the First Suite sounds just wonderful to me, for example, with a lovely, heartfelt approach.  In other movements I wasn't so keen: those fabulous wide arpeggios in the Prelude of the Third Suite didn't have the emotional power I expect, for example, and the slow, rather plodding tempo of the famous Bourée from the Third Suite just sounded wrong to me.  Also, the astonishing Sarabande of the Fifth Suite is played with such explicit expression (and so much vibrato) that, perhaps perversely, it lost much of its usual power to move me.  Sometimes, if you'll forgive the cliché, less is more.

Whatever I may think about the interpretations, the sheer beauty of sound from Maisky's cello is simply mesmerising.  It's probably the loveliest sound I know in any recording of these works (and I have quite a lot), and it's superbly recorded. 

My reservations about this recording are very personal, and you may well respond differently.  Personally, I'd go for Isserlis, Fournier or the recent brilliant recording by David Watkin before this, but that's the point of different recordings.  I wouldn't reject this by any means.  There are parts of this set which I return to again and again (especially the First Suite) and many people love it, so my advice is to give it a try of you can and see what you think – it may suit you very well.

Rosenmüller - Beatus vir? - Beyer/Gli Incogniti

Rating: 4/5

Review: 
Excellent performances

I wasn't familiar with Rosenmüller but I tried this disc because I like Amandine Beyer's work with Gli Ingogniti.  As expected, they are excellent, but I find Rosenmüller's work a little ordinary.

Rosenmüller was composing in the early Baroque period in the half-century or so before the birth of Bach, Handel and Scarlatti in 1685.  His music is good, well crafted stuff, but I don't find either the melodic or harmonic aspects especially inspiring.  However, he is given a significant lift here by the excellent singers and Beyer and her small ensemble.  The performances are excellent, I think, with real thought and engagement with the music and texts, so that both the sacred motets and instrumental pieces are given genuine meaning.  They lift this music well above the ordinary and make this an enjoyable disc.

With very good recorded sound and attractive presentation, this is a recommendable performance even if the music isn't the most inspiring, and I'd encourage anyone with an interest in the music of the 17^th Century to give it a try.

Bach - Cello Suites - Gastinel

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent interpretations

I wasn't at all sure that I would like Anne Gastinel's interpretations of the Cello Suites having read some reviews, but I tried them anyway and I'm very glad I did because I like them very much.  They are slightly eccentric in places but superbly played and very rewarding, I think.

The first thing to say is that Anne Gastinel is a very fine cellist indeed.  These are extremely challenging works which demand genuine virtuosity in places, but Gastinel's technique is so good that she seems to move through them with no sense of strain and her playing sounds utterly natural.  There is a delightful sense of flow throughout as she is seemingly immersed in and carried along by the music itself – and it's a lovely ride.  The sound of her cello is simply fabulous (and beautifully recorded by Naïve) and I often find myself captivated by these performances.

Gastinel's tempi are generally quite brisk and she brings some occasional rhythmic eccentricity to her phrasing which in some recordings I have found intrusive and rather irritating, but here it just seems to work.  It sounds absolutely sincere and genuine with no hint of mannered or forced "individuality" being imposed on Bach's music.  For example, she skips with the quickest and lightest of touches over the wonderful wide arpeggios in the prelude to the Third Suite, and yet they keep all the moving beauty they have in, say David Watkin's fabulous and much more emphatic interpretation.  In the magnificent Sarabande of the Fifth Suite, which Steven Isserlis invests with such spellbinding depth and passion, Gastinel seems to caress the meaning from the music in the tenderest way – and it's just as powerful.

I was genuinely surprised by how much I like these interpretations.  I have a lot of recordings of the Cello Suites and I think this stands with the best of them.  These things are often a matter of personal taste and preference but I would urge you to give this recording a try.  If you find them as enjoyable and rewarding as I do, it will be well worth it.

Finger - Sonatae Op.1 - Echo du Danube

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A thoroughly enjoyable disc

I like this disc very much.  It's not truly great music but it's sometimes quite delightful and always very enjoyable, and it's very well played.

The excellently named Gottfried Finger was a gambist and composer active chiefly in London and then Mannheim from around 1680-1730.  He was plainly a very accomplished player and a more-than-competent composer; the sonatas here which make up his Op.1 are skilfully done, melodious and have plenty of harmonic interest.

Echo du Danube bring the music to life very well.  They are a six-member ensemble whose individual virtuosity allows them to play the music very naturally, and their understanding of the music and each other gives the whole thing an really enjoyable feel.  I get this out sometimes and listen to a couple of sonatas just for the simple pleasure of it - somewhat like a musical sorbet, I suppose.

This music won't set the world alight but that's true of a lot of music which is still very good and thoroughly satisfying to listen to and I can recommend this warmly to anyone with an interest in this period. 

Terzi - Il secondo libro... - Beier/Marchitelli

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Enjoyable lute music

This is an enjoyable disc of late 16th Century lute music. We know precious little about Terzi's life - not even his exact dates - but quite a bit of his work survives and it is good to have it available.

The music is Italian and considerably sunnier in disposition than that of Terzi's contemporary Dowland. These are more free-form pieces such as toccatas and fantasias rather than the more dance-like pieces we know from Dowland, and this is a very engaging selection of them. They are tuneful and charming and although there are galliards and the like, the feel of the selection is of sunny and rhythmically fairly free music. It is very enjoyable indeed.

The playing by Beier and Marchitelli is good and in places truly delightful. They bring out the music's charm very nicely and they are a pleasure to listen to. The recording is slightly on the dry side for my taste but the overall sound is still very good. The notes by the two performers themselves are informative and it's an attractive disc all round. Recommended.